Ifi Audio Go Bar is an ultra-portable USB DAC and headphone amplifier. It has gained attention for being the most powerful dongle DAC on the market using Ifi Audio's features like Xbass and XSpace.
The Ifi Audio Go Bar has a similar circuit design that Ifi Audio often uses, which is a combination setup of a 16-core XMOS microcontroller with a customised firmware to work in conjunction with a 32-bit Master HiFi Audio Cirrus logic chip. It moves on to a balanced symmetrical two-channel solution, which is a dual-mono amplifier design that, according to Ifi Audio, eliminates crosstalk and significantly reduces noise levels.
The Ifi Audio Go Bar can handle most major formats, including fully decoded MQA. A total of four formats can be run on hardware rendering on the Go Bar: DSD up to 12.3 MHz, PCM up to 32 bits and 384 kHz, and DXD at 352.8 or 384 kHz. The DAC section has a selectable function where you can choose from four digital filters: bit-perfect, standard, minimum phase and Gibbs Transient Optimised filters.
As for the power output, the Ifi Audio Go Bar has a power output rating of 475mW on the balanced side and 300mW on the single-end side. The voltage is listed as 7.2 volts, which is a higher rating compared to the NEO and a higher voltage output rating than even the xDSD Gryphon. The output impedance is listed as 1ฮฉ on both the balanced and SE sections. The frequency response seems to trend upward at high frequencies and is listed as 20 to 45 kHz.
Design-wise, the Ifi Audio Go Bar has a lot of LEDs, more than other dongle DACs. It has a total of nine LEDs used for everything from bitrate, format, XBass and XSpace, to even volume level. The Go Bar is quite bulky and larger than most dongle DACs but not too heavy at 28.5 grams. The standard Go Bar is made of metal, and it appears to be high quality aluminium. The Go Bar looks similar to the Black Edition in shape and style but with a much smaller size.
The Ifi Audio Go Bar has a USB-C connection as the only input and two headphone outputs, a 3.5mm SE connection and a 4.4mm Pentaconn typical of most dongle DACs today. There are two volume buttons on board. A 3-way IEMatch switch sits next to the negative volume button and a setting button sits next to the positive volume button. This setting button is used to access the selectable DAC filters and a couple of other functions.
